Thursday, 15 February 2018

A few years ago I scanned all of Dave Sim's notebooks. He had filled 36 notebooks during the years he created the monthly Cerebus series, covering issues #20 to 300, plus the other side items -- like the Epic stories, posters and prints, convention speeches etc. A total of 3,281 notebook pages detailing his creative process. I never really got the time to study the notebooks when I had them. Just did a quick look, scanned them in and sent them back to Dave as soon as possible. So this regular column is a chance for me to look through those scans and highlight some of the more interesting pages.

The last time we looked at Dave Sim's tenth Cerebus notebook was back in May 2016 in Odd Transformations. . .4 part 2. Notebook #10 had 115 pages scanned and covers Cerebus #87 through 95.

For issue #89 Dave did a bunch of thumbnails showing the page lay-out. On page 30 of the notebook is the thumbnail for page 17, or page 771 of Church & State II:

Notebook #10, page 30

It looks like he was thinking of Cerebus holding the coin between his thumb and finger, looking at it while it grows larger, the text Terim appearing. Instead, what makes the finished book is the thumbnail below that, with the coin turning more into an sphere.

Church & State II, page 771

There is also a small glimpse of the next page, with Cerebus waking up. Instead of his look in the first panel, the quick sketch above the thumbnail is the expression we see on Cerebus' face in the finished issue.

And as always, if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments!

***

Are You Telling Me We're Going to Get Through an ENTIRE INSTALLMENT of This Series Without Mentioning Sharpening??!

Everything we've done so far has been intended to address the stages of the work we've already gone through. That is, the color adjustments and the 180 degree rotation are because of the limitations and the mechanism of the input/scanning stage. Now we're going to make a few adjustments based on the next steps instead.

First off, this is probably the third time that I've recommended it, but if you're interested in these topics, do yourself a favor and find a copy of the classic REAL WORLD Image Sharpening by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe (plenty of $10 copies at a certain South-American-themed website.) Although I disagree with several of their conclusions, particularly regarding resolution and supposed importance of noise reduction, it's an invaluable resource for anyone working for color reproduction.

Using the language of REAL WORLD Image Sharpening, we're first going to do just a bit of "capture sharpening". That is, we'll do some very mild sharpening to counteract the inevitable softening effect that any optical capture system exhibits.

Here's an adjusted scan of an illustration of mine from last year. As I typically do, I scanned it at-size at 600 ppi RGB, then adjusted the Levels with the original in my hand, side by side with the monitor.

(In this case, I also "cheated" a bit on the figure, adjusting his skin tone separately from the rest of the image, as he had a rather lifeless pallor in the original).

So! Time for the "capture sharpening". Let's zoom in way too close.

Yeah, like I said, WAY too close. Click to see it at 100 percent.

You can see some of the (totally normal) softness in the scan. Those streaks of red are from a water color pencil. They should have a bit of grit to them.

Because there's not really any noise per se to bring up in a painting like this — no undesirable texture etc — we can get away with applying a healthy dose of sharpness, using the Unsharp Mask tool.

And here's the result. Click it to enlarge and see the image at 100 percent of the scan size.

If you're placing this image in a layout that has more than one image or graphic additions, go ahead and place your image now, and shrink or enlarge at will within your graphics program, finding out the optimum size within the layout.

Once you know what it is, open your original again in Photoshop and hit Ctrl-I to bring the Image Resize menu up.

Click the dropdown boxes until you have the "Percent" value revealed. In my case, I'm going to shrink this to 60 percent of the original size. Enter that value in your Percent box. If you're reducing in size, select Bicubic as the method (In my experience, Bicubic Sharper can make things way too crispy). Lastly, if you're not already there, enter your target resolution. As mentioned before, if you're printing on coated paper, I'd recommend somewhere between 400 and 600 ppi. (You'll notice the Percentage value might change if you change your target resolution. It's just doing the math for you, what the actual pixel change will be, not just the dimensional change).

When you're ready, hit "Ok".

Now that we're actually in the resolution space of the final files, it's time for our final blast of sharpening. In the parlance of REAL WORLD Sharpening, this is our "output sharpening" phase.

If our first round was targeting the high frequency information (small details), this is a grosser layer, trying to prepare for the softening effect of the halftoning that the image will experience when it's printed. As such, you'd be wise to back off the Threshold somewhat so the sharpening is effecting less of your image, and raise the Radius a bit from the modest setting we had before.

Please note — if your finished document will be printed on a Xerox all-in-one at your local Office Depot or Fedex Office, those machines are set to automatically apply this kind of output sharpening to documents. So you can either skip this step or ask them to turn off the sharpening on their interface when printing! This stuff can look harsh and crispy if it's overdone.

It's my experience, however, that the reverse is usually true. People don't tend to apply enough because it can look a little odd on screen. But it's what you need to blast through that softening printing screen!

Here's a close up of a scan of one of Dave's paintings that was turned into a bonus print for one of the first Cerebus Archive Kickstarters. It's a pretty soft scan.

And here's the pretty crispy file I sent to the printer, with two stages of sharpening, as detailed below.

And here's an up-close scan of the final print, half-tone dots and all. Notice how the haloing and strange crispiness has disappeared in the print, eaten up by the inevitable softening of the printing process.

What's Next?

Save your optimally-sharpened and resized image and replace the scaled version in your layout program. Now it's time to output your layout to PDF!

(Seriously, get REAL WORLD Image Sharpening and read the whole thing. And for goodness sake's, don't let your sharpened copy be anything more than a COPY of the original file. Things are changing fast, and you don't want to be stuck with an unnecessarily crispified image at some point in the future!)

So, I reached out to Mr. Robinson with my questions, and it went like this:

AMOC: Why THIS aardvark?

Alex Robinson: I'm not really sure
what this one means. If it helps, I also liked the aardvark in those "Ant
& the Aardvark" cartoons.

Box Office Poison Page 11 (Now I want a Cerebus head shirt...)

AMOC: How did you first
find our aardvark?

Alex Robinson: I'd been reading
superhero comics for a few years and was starting to expand my horizons and
explore "indy"comics, as they were known at the time. I read an
article about Cerebus in a short-lived magazine called "Comics
Collector," which was I believe put out by Don & Maggie from the CBG,
and it sounded intriguing. My first issue was #65, which was also Gerhard's
first issue and features the title "Anything Done for the First Time
Unleashes a Demon," appropriately. This would've been 1983 or 84 I'm
guessing.

Alex Robinson: The series is
brilliant, at least the first two thirds of it. It's such a strange, unique
work that it's worth checking out just for that, but the cartooning is
fantastic and had a huge impact on my own work. Even the parts that aren't
"good" are at least weird enough to be interesting. I think it kind
of runs off the rails as it goes on and Dave Sim's politics and personal
interests start taking precedence over compelling storytelling or characterization
but up until the end he and Gerhard continued to push the envelope in terms of
cartooning.

I've met Dave Sim a few times over the decades and he was always decent to me
and his encouragement meant a lot of me during my own early years of bitter
struggle. I disagree with a lot of his opinions but it's his life. I have a
hard time being critical of him because he was such an important figure to me
when I was a teenager, almost an absentee mentor. One irony is that the first
time I read issue #186, the proverbial smoking gun of Dave Sim's misogyny, I
didn't even notice it because the text pieces had gotten so dense and esoteric
that I'd started skimming them. Since this was before the internet I only
learned about it months later. I guess I'm tolerant of his views because
they're so extreme (women can read minds, the ongoing struggle between God and
YooHoo, for instance) that even most hardcore misogynists would find them
puzzling. Plus, he's so marginalized at this point that it's hard to see his
views as any kind of threat.

It's sad that his illnesses have stopped him from being able to draw anymore.

Box Office Poison page 58 (Elrod and Lord Julius? Best. Party. Ever!)

AMOC: Would you still use
Cerebus if you were doing the work for the first time, now?

Alex Robinson: I'll still work
Cerebus into a drawing occasionally. As time has gone on I've generally put
less jokey gags in the backgrounds so that's probably a bigger factor in not
putting him in than anything else. I still doodle Cerebus all the time. The
other day actually, it occurred to me that I've probably drawn him more than
any other character I didn't create and probably more than many I did
create. I picked up the habit in high school and he's still my absent-minded
doodle of choice.

Alex Robinson: Sophia. For one
thing, Sophia was a prominent character when I first started reading so she'll
always have a special place in my heart. Also, I never really liked Jaka as a
character. Her early appearances worked because she was almost more of a symbol
than a genuine character--she would show up, there would be feelings and she'd
leave. I was fascinated by the fact that Dave Sim seems to have put her in the
book in the last third because it was what the audience and Cerebus wanted. I
found it interesting because Dave Sim was famous for his stubborn independence
so why is he suddenly letting us (and Cerebus) call the shots? Also, since she
didn't really have much of an established character she took on all the aspects
of womanhood that Dave Sim had contempt for--shallow, self-centered, etc. which
made it less fun to read.

Box Office Poison page 526, (Check out the second guy from the left in the last row.)

AMOC: Thanks for answering.
Wait, that’s not a question…

Alex Robinson: Let me know if you
have any other questions!

Box Office Poison page 325 (No Aardvark, I know, but I do own the original of this page, and wanna brag...)

So there you have it.

I'd like to extend a HUGE thanks to Alex Robinson for taking the time to answer my stupid questions, and for letting me run images from Box Office Poison, THANKS ALEX!

If you've found our Aardvark in a comic, send a message to momentofcerebus@gmail.com, and you might get credited in a future installment of: Hey! I KNOW that aardvark!Next time: Images of Cerebus, I almost guarantee it...

The multi-year Cerebus Restoration project continues! Minds, the tenth volume of the 6,000 page Cerebus epic, finds the titular misanthropic aardvark hurtling through space alongside Cirin, his opponent and fellow aardvark, both heading for a direct collision with their small-m maker - "Dave" - a mysterious being who talks with them about themselves and their world, and who just might resemble Cerebus writer/cartoonist Dave Sim. Minds is the groundbreaking conclusion to the first two-thirds of the Cerebus epic, presented here for the first time in remastered form: painstakingly restored page-by-page from original artwork and photo negatives, and revealing detail never before present on the printed page. This volume also includes eight brand-new pages of extras, including a 6,000 word essay by Sean Michael Robinson.

Preamble: Dave Sim's Blog & Mail ran on the Cerebus Yahoo group from September 13th, 2006 to December 26th, 2007. And...no, that's pretty much all you needed to know. I used to call it the "bloggymail" because in Spanish, "and" is "y", and I thought "Blog y Mail" sounded funny, or something. Dude, it was a decade ago. Wait do you want? Anyway,On 9/15/06, Dave Sim <dsim@nonexistente-mail.net > wrote:

Friday September 15 –

Today's Blog & Mail is brought to you by the Theory of Relativity.

The Theory of Relativity. It Wants Back into Today's Headlines

And it's willing to use modern marketing methods to do it!

But, I have to ask: What has the Theory of Relativity done for me lately? Schrodinger's Cat Paradox helped bring in the groceries last night. AND did the dishes without having to be asked.

We'll be back after this short commercial message

Alright.

Hey, Cerebus Retailers!

Answer your phone in the month of September with the phrase that pays:

"Cerebus Doesn't Actually Suck—it's just those idiots on the Comics Journal message boards that make it sound like it does!"

and you could win $5,000 in Cerebus Merchandise!

Who from? We don't know, but there must be somebody

Who'll give you $5,000 in Cerebus merchandise to answer your phone that way!

Um...I think I'll pass on mentioning this one to Jed. (Yes, my local retailer is named Jed. I believe it's short for Jedediah.)

Plans for the "YE BOOKES OF CEREBUS" exhibit and performance are continuing for Salt Lake City at the end of October (a few days after the end of Ramadan).

If we get the car loan, Paula and I will be there. Of course, we'll have to pull a "Seiler" and drive for a day. But SHE wants to go. I'm not the one dragging her along.

Performance? Mimi Cruz is putting together a power point presentation of the first 40 pages of The Last Day which I'll be reading while it's projected behind me (or possibly "onto me" if we can't get the big auditorium).

Ha! "Dave sure gets into Cerebus!"

Should run about three hours with a nice intermission in the middle.

Will there be punch? 'Cause I'm a sucker for good punch.

Our pitch to the book festival patrons? "GIVE US 15 MINUTES AND WE BET YOU STAY FOR THE WHOLE THING."

You're gonna disobey the fire marshall and lock the doors aren't you?

This will be followed by a Q&A and autographing session and that's what will be on all the advertising and promotion of the event in Salt Lake City. What we're hoping to do right here and now, however, is to let all you Yahoos know that GER AND I WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM NOON ON even though the actual program won't begin until, as advertised, later in the afternoon.

Yippee! If turn-out is low, I can be annoying. (Not that I wanna be annoying, I just feel that I turn annoying.) ((I may need help.))

That is, just between Ger, me and the Yahoos, Ger will be in the actual exhibit room from noon on and I'll be inside the auditorium from noon on if you want anything autographed or just want to drop by and chat.

And in my case, be annoying.

We hate like heck to see Yahoos having to wait in line behind Non-Yahoos

Damn Right! And can we bump Lenny Cooper too? (Just kidding L nny.)

(Or "Soohays" I guess you would call them)

As good a name as any. I case.

AND HUSBAND-AND-WIFE NIGHTFLIGHT COMICS IMPRESSARIOS ALAN CARROLL AND MIMI CRUZ DID A HECK OF A JOB PUTTING TOGETHER THE SINGLE BEST-ATTENDED CEREBUS STORE SIGNING FOR ME BACK IN 1994

Cool.

so there may be a number of Soohays in attendance twelve years later on.

Crap.

Of course there may not (THE 1994 SIGNING WAS THE LAST SIGNING BEFORE ISSUE 186 CAME OUT)

Coo...Cra... Hey guys, how are we handling this one?

but the invitation includes Yahoos in full standing as well as lurkers (feel free to just stare at all of us from begind a nearby pillar)

Man I hope they don't. That's just freaky. All these people in Fedoras, sunglasses, and trench coats standing behind pillars. And there aren't any pillared structures around. They bring their own freestanding pillars. Creepy.

and anyone else who isn't still sulking about issue 186 TWELVE YEARS LATER!

Well Dave, to be fair. You did call them "whiny crybabies who never let anything go."

WE REPEAT: MATT DOW NO LONGER LIVES AT 2115 MONROE STREET IN TWO RIVERS WISCONSIN.

And you've sent me at least two letters and two packages at the new address.

THIS INFORMATION CAME TO LIGHT WHEN A LETTER ADDRESSED TO HIM WAS RETURNED WITH A CHECK MARK NEXT TO "NOT DELIVERABLE AS ADDRESSED".

Yup. The six month forwarding period ran out.

IT IS ALSO ADORNED WITH A YELLOW STICKER READING: DOW-115 542412005 1N 09 07/01/06 (ONLY ONE INTEGER OFF FROM E. HOWARD HUNT'S CIA FILE NUMBER. COINCIDENCE? HAHA! AS IF!)

Why my good friends G. Gordan Liddy and Henry Kissinger, I mean "TWO STRANGERS WHOM I'VE NEVER MET, MUCH LESS GIVEN MONEY TO." always say that that was a clerical error.

AND "UNABLE TO FORWARD", "NO FORWARD ORDER ON FILE" AND "RETURN TO POSTMASTER OF ADDRESSEE FOR REVIEW" AS WELL AS HALF A BAR CODE.

The other half doesn't work for MI-6 Dave. No matter what the photos show.

IN A LATE-BREAKING DEVELOPMENT A STRANGE CANCELLATION MESSAGE APPEARS ON THE ENVELOPE READING: "FROM ANYWHERE TO ANYONE" AND (EN FRANCAIS) "DE PARTOUT JUSQU-A VOUS" (ROUGHLY TRANSLATED "BLOW IT OUT YOUR EAR, ANGLO SWINE"). THE LETTER HAS BEEN SITTING IN GERHARD'S IN-BOX FOR ABOUT SIX WEEKS NOW (HIS SUBTLE WAY OF INQUIRING "WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THIS?" THE FIRST WEEK AND "CAN YOU PLEASE REMOVE THIS FROM MY IN-BOX?" IN EACH OF THE SUBSEQUENT FIVE WEEKS)

It's all a plot to drive him mad.

AND IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY CONTAINS A DRAWING OF FAMOUS MATT DOW CARTOON CREATION "BONER THE RUNT DOG"

Sunday, 11 February 2018

Welcome back to “Reading Cerebus”, a new (some-what) weekly column here at A Moment of Cerebus. The goal of this column is to bring a fresh perspective to the 300-issue saga of Cerebus as I read through the series for the first time and give my insights into the longest running independent comic book series of all time. Think of this as part book club, part lit-crit, and part pop culture musing. Oh, and they told me Dave Sim himself may be reading this, so I hope I don’t screw this up. Let’s continue.

Reeling from wounds received in his battle with the giant spider at the end of last issue, a delirious Cerebus is found by the manipulative Conniptin's and weaponized against their enemies.

Manipulating Cerebus

What is it about Cerebus that makes people believe he can be bent to their will? Is it his small stature? Is it the fact that he is a talking aardvark in a world of men? Whatever the reason, many people have attempted to use Cerebus to get what they want, all to poor effect.

From Flame Jewels to the treasures of the Black Sun, deities to dunder-heads have all tried their hands at weaponizing the Earth-Pig Born only to learn that Cerebus is not one to be trifled with. The Conniptin's, however, happen upon him in a weakened and hallucinatory state, one that allows him to be easily bent to their will and used as a weapon in their war with the people of Iest.

Elrod Again, Naturally

In his battle with the enemy encampment, we are exposed to Cerebus psyche let loose. Who are these enemy combatants? Well, in Cerebus' mind they are none other than the albino Elrod and the saucy sword fighter Red Sophia. While this could just be a simple hallucination induced by his wounds, it's what happens next that shows us something in regards to Cerebus' feelings towards his past companions.

He murders their likenesses in cold blood.

No hesitation whatsoever. He sees the visages of his past companions and drives cold steel through each until they lay in a pool of crimson on the battle field. With friends like Cerebus, who needs enemies?

I Can't Do it Captain

On a humor and pop culture front, the issues features a member of the Conniptin's army who bares a resemblance, at least vocally, to original Star Trek cast member Dr. Leonard McCoy. We are treated to Dr. McCoy's signature, "I'm a doctor not a...", line several times:

- "I'm a doctor not a general..."- "I'm a doctor not a time-keeper!"- "I'm a doctor not a martyr!"

Meet the New Boss

Despite apprehensions, Cerebus decides to take up the offer to lead the Conniptin army, even though he has his apprehensions. By his own accord, "Cerebus calls no man 'master'...", but the thought of battle, a soft bed, warm food and good wine win out, even if the position is just that of a puppet ruler.

Join me back here next week as we look at Issue 9: Swords Against Imesh

Kevin Kimmes is a lifelong comic book reader, sometime comic book artist, and recent Cerebus convert. He can be found slinging comics at the center of the Multiverse, aka House of Heroes in Oshkosh, WI.